Mozambique: State needs US$1.8 billion for nationwide water supply, wants private investment – Watch

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Mozambique: State needs US$1.8 billion for nationwide water supply, wants private investment – Watch

3:53 CAT | 17 Aug 2021

Screen grab: TVM

The Mozambican government on Monday estimated at $1.8 billion (€1.5 billion) the amount needed to ensure that the entire population has access to drinking water, calling on private companies to invest in the sector.

“It is a huge effort, but not unachievable,” said the minister of public works and housing.

Osvaldo Machatine was speaking after the launch of the international conference of funders of the water supply system, to be held in Maputo on 15 September.

He said that the Mozambican government is committed to increasing the coverage rate of the water supply network from 65% to 82% by 2025.

The achievement of the goal will create conditions for Mozambique to reach, in 2030, the objective of universal access to drinking water recommended by the United Nations, within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“We have a set of very diversified projects in the water sector and they all contribute to achieving this goal,” he added.

The massification of access to drinking water involves a greater intervention of the private sector to act in cooperation with the State and international partners, he said.

In that sense, the government plans to list on the stock exchange the companies that manage the water supply systems of Mozambican cities intending to allow private capital to move into those entities.

“Private investment will bring many gains, starting with efficiency in infrastructure management, because we have losses of between 50% and 55% and we want the private sector to come in and provide technology to reduce these losses,” Machatine said.

Machatine noted that the mobilisation of resources for the water sector aims to provide the country with the capacity to deal with the increasing scarcity of this resource, which is already a source of conflict in other parts of the world.

Watch the TVM report.